Assignment 9: Reflection on Professional Development Since embarking on the PGCHE I have changed my impression of the role of the teacher

and the act of teaching. Initially I had considered the teaching aspect of my new role, as Academic Liaison Librarian, was something I just had to tolerate; I was very anxious about teaching and lacked confidence in my own ability. I now embrace opportunities for teaching and consider it to be much more than an aspect of my job, but more a change in mindset about my whole role. I can see new opportunities for creativity within my teaching, not just as an information provider but also as a facilitator and sharer of ideas and possibilities for researching. I feel more enthused about teaching information literacy and research skills now because I think there are so many ways to engage students with concepts and develop these skills. I have been supported and encouraged by the lecturers and students from the School of Performance, with whom I have tried out new ideas. Good teaching experiences have really improved my confidence and I have valued the feedback from students and support from my library colleagues and other members of staff. The PGCHE has given me a framework from which to develop these new ideas, as well as the confidence to share them with members of staff both internal and external to University College Falmouth. I feel I am beginning to develop my own teaching style and have felt more confident about this through the approval and encouragement I have received from doing my micro-teach, the observations and from further experience and feedback. Another invaluable aspect of the PGHCE was the opportunity to meet with other members of staff involved with teaching both at University College Falmouth and externally. As a result I could discuss concerns, share ideas and build relationships with these people. This was timely for me as it enhanced the opportunities for liaising with other lecturers was is the prime purpose of my role, and it gave me the opportunity to have closer contact with the new members of staff who work within the School of Performance. I have worked closely with one member of staff, a lecturer from Theatre, conducting joint teaching sessions and sharing ideas of how to incorporate the library into course delivery. This has given me the confidence to portray Academic Liaison Librarians as academic colleagues who are able to enhance the learning opportunities of the students. I have developed my own ideas about teaching information literacy and how these skills are transferable and could make students more employable if they were able to reapply them in different contexts. I consider that the library should further market these skill areas in order to influence the perceived value of a university degree as a valuable and effective route to employment. At the start of this course, I was so concerned about my teaching sessions that I would plan them thoroughly ensuring I had search examples and results so that I had control over the sessions. Now I can appreciate the value of facilitating learning by doing through an enquiry-based approach. From my own research and work with the lecturer from Theatre I have recognised that experiential learning can work well when teaching information literacy skills. I have looked to develop these ideas through projects and bids for funding with the Theatre lecturer, which has further focused my mind on the application of these ideas. As well as working with lecturers I have also conducted shared sessions with my equivalent from the Academic Skills team. I have enjoyed collaborating in this way and from it developing new ways of engaging students with the library and information literacy skills. I have begun planning sessions as a result of the PGCHE, initially using existing templates and then developing my own. This acts as a prompt for me to consider a variety to aspects to my teaching

including inclusivity issues. Moreover it provides evidence of teaching session ideas for lecturers and documents sessions for future reference. Evidence of impact and statistics on sessions and one-to-ones are becoming increasingly important as Higher Education becomes more accountable to society. The increasing of student tuition fees and cuts to funding will put greater pressure on Higher Education to justify itself. Employability is an issue that we have visited during the PGCHE, and I consider that this provides an opportunity for the library to sell its skills of research and information literacy as transferable, and therefore of value to the students in the workplace post graduation. The PGCHE has provided me with a framework for thinking critically and reflectively on my own teaching practice, allowing me to adapt and alter teaching methods to meet the needs of the students and the different courses. I encourage students to give me feedback to help me reflect on my practice, and the PGCHE Summer School presented new ideas for how to do this for example using Turning Point software and hash tags on Twitter. Teaching research skills is the main aspect of my teaching and therefore keeping up-to-date with new technologies and resources is very important and requires me to conduct my own research on a regular basis. The value of continuing professional development has been emphasised by the PGCHE and it has inspired me to share my reflections, findings, and experiences using a blog and Twitter. I am particularly interested in issues of inclusivity and how these can influence teaching practice and encourage creativity in session design and content. I have found the PGCHE useful in helping me to understand a broad range of potential needs of students. I can now see how specific courses have particular needs according to how they respond to a library setting and the teaching environments that are more comfortable to them. It has been beneficial to conduct an initial library session in the students course environment, for example for Performance students this tends to be in a studio space. Awareness of these needs have helped me design sessions which break down barriers to library use that might exist amongst different cohorts of students. Ultimately the PGCHE has been valuable and timely and has enhanced my confidence significantly. The contacts I have made during this time have been important to me and I intend to build on these. Moreover, I found my attitude towards teaching has become more positive and I feel enthusiastic about the start of a new academic year knowing that I now have a better understanding of teaching practice, styles, new methods of engaging students and inspiration for designing different sessions.